Exclusive Interview with Dr. Ken’s Albert Tsai
At eleven-years-old, Albert Tsai has already established himself as a talented actor in the industry. Born and raised in San Jose, California, he discovered his love for acting at age seven after participating in a school play. Afterwards, Albert began taking acting classes, intent on fostering his natural talent. It wasn’t long before he moved to LA and started going for auditions. In 2013, he made his television debut with a guest spot as Kaden on How I Met Your Mother, which was followed by another guest role on Hot in Cleveland the year after. Then, he landed the role of Bert Harrison on Trophy Wife, a role which earned him not only praise but also a nomination for “Best Supporting Actor” at the 2014 Critics’ Choice Awards when he was just nine. He was the youngest actor that year to receive a nomination.
Now, Albert is lending his remarkable talent to the ABC sitcom Dr. Ken, in which he plays Dr. Ken’s youngest child, Dave. On Dr. Ken, Albert has expanded his skills and broken new ground actor-wise. I recently had the opportunity to chat with Albert about his role on Dr. Ken, what he likes to do when he’s not acting and who he’d love to work with in the future. Check it out below!
Can you tell me a little about yourself?
I’m eleven years old, and some of the things that I like to do when I’m not filming are: I like to read, I like to swim, I like to horseback ride and I just started doing kung-fu.
Do you own your own horse?
No, I just go to the stables and I borrow one for the length of the ride.
How did you get started in acting?
I did a school play when I was in second grade. It was also a comedy, and incidentally, I played a doctor called Dr. Dan.
That’s a pretty cool coincidence!
Yeah! After that, I found that I liked acting so I signed up for acting classes. I came down to L.A. and started doing auditions. I got a guest star role on “How I Met Your Mother” and that was my first TV role. Then, I got “Trophy Wives.” I did the pilot and then it got picked up for the first season and that was really cool. And you pretty much know the rest! (Laughs).
What do you enjoy the most about playing Dave on “Dr. Ken”?
It’s fun for me to play Dave because there is a lot of experimenting with his character and his personality. I’m definitely looking forward to seeing Dave develop and his personality develop in future episodes. “Dr. Ken” is a MultiCam show, so I really enjoy the live tapings where the audience come in and we film in front of them and get direct feedback from them because if there is a joke that gets a big laugh from the audience, we know that it will work on TV.
Do you ever get nervous filming in front of a live audience?
No, it just makes me excited! I like being in front of the audience!
So, what was the audience process like for Dave?
Actually, Ken emailed me—Dr. Ken—the script, and I wanted to play the character Dave, so I accepted the offer and came to L.A. Me and Ken, we had actually worked on an episode of “Hot in Cleveland” together; it was the season five premiere of that show. So we just got together, as well as Dave Foley who is also now on the show.
Who is the funniest person on set when you guys aren’t filming?
Everybody is really funny. We all joke around and have a great time. Ken tends to do some facial expressions and he improvs a lot when we are filming and when we are not filming. He loves to joke.
What is one thing that you’ve learned since being on “Dr. Ken”?
In the first episode, in the Pilot of “Dr. Ken”, I got to do miming which is something that I’ve never done before. So, it was cool to experience that and to learn that for the show.
So, do you find yourself drawn more to comedy roles more than other kinds of roles?
I love to do comedy! I love to make people laugh and bring happiness to people, but, in the future, I’d also like to try some feature film roles and maybe do a bit more drama. I’d also love to do some historical stories or maybe some action.
Do you think you would do your own stunts?
That depends on how dangerous they are! (Laughs). And how skilled I am in that!
So, what are some of your favorite television shows right now?
I like to watch “Fresh Off the Boat” and also there’s a cooking show that’s going to premiere for its fourth season called “Master Chef Junior”, where they have kids come on and cook. I really like watching that show as well. And some Disney Channel shows as well.
I haven’t seen that cooking show with kids before! I’ll have to check that one out!
Yeah, it’s called “Master Chef Junior” and it’s on Fox.
If you could work with any actor or actress, who would it be and why?
I’d like to work with Jennifer Lawrence, because she was in “The Hunger Games” and she did a bunch of action, which is what I would like to do. I’d also like to work with her because I want to do some more adventurous kind of things. So working with her would be cool, like in a feature film!
So, what is in store for Dave for the remaining of this season?
Well, there’s a Halloween episode coming up, and, in that episode, there’s going to be some really nice brother-sister moments between Dave and Molly, and they’re going to work on a little project together. There’s also another episode coming up which is going to feature Dave playing basketball—Dave and Ken playing basketball.
You can catch the next episode of Dr. Ken on Friday, October 23, at 8:30 pm on ABC.